Star Wars or Star Trek, Apple or Google, The Battle For Supremacy and Relevancy Thrives Here.

Buying Into A Platform

The motto of this blog is “Star Wars or Star Trek, Apple or Google, The Battle For Supremacy and Relevancy Thrives Here” and it is in this spirit that I write this post. Choosing a platform is the quintessential decision we are faced with on a daily basis every time you fire up a PC, smartphone, TV, or glance at a billboard. This is a battleground waged almost primarily through advertisements and press. Apple or Android, Windows or Mac? Let me first burst your bubble, you won’t find a single answer-to-it-all recommendation here. Don’t leave though because just like you I battle the same desire to go all in on one platform. There’s the allure of simplicity, uniformity, and accessibility in the idea of buying wholly into one platform. Nevertheless I recently have come to terms with one fact…no platform exists that can adequately be all things to all people/me.

Oh yes many try, but at some point all fail. How about some examples starting with Google. It’s no secret that Google search reigns supreme. I won’t digress into a comparison with other search engines; after all it’s part of vocabulary to Google something when you perform an online search and not to Bing it. Besides every time I see the word ‘Bing’ I think of Chandler’s annoying girlfriend from Friends (Janice) wooing him in her nasally voice “Chandler Bingggg!” Ick! Yet comparing Google Docs to MS Office is also a gross mistake. In this case feature by feature Office trumps Google docs by a long shot. Sorry to disappoint again but for purposes of another article I’ll stay away from the Apple (iOS) to Google (Android) comparison. That’s a whole different can of worms. Instead how about another conundrum- internet browsers. There’s Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari to name a few. The lines blur a bit here but if you’re priority like me is speed and access to the cloud then Chrome is the clear answer.

Want a piece of hardware, then look no further than Apple the undisputed king (in the court of public and this engineer’s opinion) of innovation and good product engineering. Let’s talk about some apps. For instance note taking apps. Try the popular Evernote or my personal favorite Springpad. Have you seen the pathetic stock Notes app on the iPhone? Honestly who still uses yellow note pads anymore, much less a faux one on a tiny screen? Thankfully Notes is getting a makeover in iOS 7. I can go on all day and would likely end up with a very long laundry list of me too products to compliment a few very good ones but I think I’ll just get straight to the point. That point being hardware and software makers have their strengths and weaknesses. Diving all in on one platform (Apple people are likely going to strongly disagree with me most here) will only be your loss. My advice, find what you like and go for it. Focus on things that try to do one or two things best rather than being all things to all people. If it really is a good product it’ll offer cross platform integration anyways. After all last I checked you can still open up Word and perform internet searches through Google on the Chrome web browser all on an iMac. Don’t just stick to meat and potatoes when you can have your cake and eat it too.